Five years is a long time away from power — and the ministries that had always kept Ramvilas Paswan in constant good humour.
Far too long, understandably, for a man who managed to swim effortlessly in the tumultuous ebb and flow of Indian politics over the last two decades. From VP Singh’s Janata Dal to the United Front, the National Democratic Alliance and finally to the United Progressive Alliance, Paswan crossed ideological boundaries through an almost invisible osmotic process. He was above reproach and judgement.
While the charismatic Lalu Prasad Yadav was having to live up to his genius and Nitish Kumar toiled away as befitting his tenacious lot, Paswan never had any expectations to fulfil.
His seemingly unending tenures in such lucrative departments as Chemicals and Fertilisers, Coal, Railways and so on meant that he was almost always happy.
In the heat and dust of elections in Bihar, Paswan’s quarters were where you found mouth-watering food served in the company of some who had served jail terms or were about to.
Inadvertently seated next to Anand Mohan Singh, before he was convicted for murder and famously penned Gumnaam Nahin Maroonga (I Will Not Die Anonymous), I have a distinct memory of Paswan gliding onwards with a plate of what looked like smoked eggplant. “ Chidia hai (it is quail),” he smiled; simultaneously introducing the dead bird and the murderer: “a ur Anand Mohanji ko to jaanti hain na aap (you know Anand Mohan, of course).”
The momentum of two decades carried on till the last general elections when Ram Sunder Das defeated him in his pocket borough of Hajipur.
Even then, Paswan was the first to smile and wave at the television crews, causing the veteran Sharad Yadav to smirk: “ Hum itne bure haarte to do din khaat se nahin uth sakte. Isko dekho, yeh camera ko byte dene chal pada (Just watch him rush to the TV reporters. If I had lost so badly, I wouldn’t have been able to get up from the bed for two days).”
But Paswan’s subsequent rout in the assembly elections and Lalu’s stubborn refusal to accommodate him, his actor son Chirag Paswan, his brother Ram Chandra Paswan and all the bahubalis (strongmen), meant a gradual loss of humour over five years.
It is time now for a Kodak moment with Narendra Modi and restore good cheer.
Political Editor